THIS IS WHY YOU SHOULD NOT REALLY TRUST AI PREPARED TRANSLATIONS

 


By Carlos de Paula

 

I could not dream this up,  even considering I have great imagination. It just happened recently.

 

I was recently editing a translation for a client, which was done by AI. It was a long petition, which was translated from English into Spanish, concerning litigation, and it needed to be turned around fast to be filed in a South American country.  

 

The translation was mostly not bad.

 

Among other things, the middle of the text mentioned a fair number of accounts and trusts, which were individually identified by short names. One of them as the “ML Account”, reference to a major Wall Street firm. I was terrified when I found out that software had translated “ML Account” as “Cuenta de Lavado de Dinero”. In other words, Money Laundering Account.  This would certainly not sit well with any judge in any country...Mind you, this was not done a single time. It was done several times!!!

 

In my experience, when a client does AI translation revisions, provided they are competent to do that, they will do it at night, when daily chores do not interrupt the reading. After 10, 15 pages, if the text is not that bad, a non-professional reviewer will simply assume the text was OK, skim over it, if at all. In other words, the identification of “ML Account” as Money Laundering Account would likely not be caught, because it was far into the document.

 

This is just one horror story I want to share, to confirm that AI may help speed things up, but may also create huge problems.

 

You should always hire a competent and thorough AI translation editor, if you want to save money on translations.

 

 Carlos de Paula is one of the top translators in the USA since 1982. And now a top AI Translation editor as well. 

 

#AI #Translation

 For more information http://foreigndocumenttranslations.com

Comentários

Postar um comentário

Postagens mais visitadas deste blog

JUST HOW GOOD IS AI TRANSLATION?

  I have been exposed to machine translation from the very beginning, so in the 90s I had already tried computer software in a few language pairs. To tell you the truth, they were all very bad back then.   However, time flies when you are having fun, and it does the same when you are not. With time translation software has become better, I must admit. However, most AI translations still sound like AI text, devoid of style and life, incapable of understanding figures of speech, cynicism, irony, humor, nuances, and the proverbial text between the lines.   However, I knew that sooner or later it would be widely adopted as a tool, so in the last couple of decades I continued to study several software titles in myriad languages.   As it stands, AI produced translation still has a major problem: it reads context very poorly. That, in certain languages, can have disastrous consequences, for the same word can have different meanings in the same language, for inst...
Leia mais

Should you really build an Instagram audience?

Imagem
Internet presence is a necessity these days, if you want to evolve in your professional and personal life. Millions of people aspire to live a life of fame, luxury and little work by becoming influencers, trusting coaches and handlers galore that promise Instagram fortune to anyone, regardless of age, body type, beauty, speech issues, lack of intelligence, culture or talent, or offering no content with any redeeming social value. Although some people that do not fit the mold young-beautiful-woman who is willing to appear almost naked actually make it, one may say there is the inclusive narrative behind this. The powers that be (Mr. algo, Silicon Valley, celebs, coaches, PR people, the press) like to portray Instagram as a place anyone can become an instant success, so they make famous 90-year old ladies, dysfunctional folks, ugly people, unfunny comedians, untalented singers and actors, to give the semblance of a level playing field.  Do not be fooled. The people that make it are e...
Leia mais

O taxista de São Paulo, e muito disse não disse

  Muitos tentam apontar qual é o momento em que começou a ferina rivalidade entre Nelson Piquet e Ayrton Senna. Certamente, ao que tudo indica a guerra foi declarada antes mesmo de Senna estrear na F1. O palco foi a pista francesa de Paul Ricard, no final de 1983. Nesse dia, Ayrton Senna e diversos outros pilotos testaram o Brabham-BMW que havia ganho o campeonato daquele ano nas mãos do também brasileiro Nelson Piquet. Presentes estavam o próprio Piquet, que marcou o tempo base no carro em configuração de corrida (de 700 hp) e toda a hierarquia da Brabham. De fato, recentemente foram entrevistados pela revista F1, para falar sobre este teste, Bernie Ecclestone, Gordon Murray, Herbie Blash e Charlie Whiting, três destes ainda atuantes na F1, nos mais altos níveis. Dois destes, Ecclestone, o dono da equipe, e Blash, o mecânico chefe, dizem que Piquet, conhecido por suas brincadeiras, teria se referido a Senna como o "taxista de São Paulo". Com isso, corre por terra qualq...
Leia mais